Jean E. Litchfield pets Timmy at Just Cat Boarding in Lisbon Falls. (Daryn Slover/Sun Journal)

LISBON FALLS — Not too long ago, Jean E. Litchfield was watching a large, unhappy cat while his owner was out of the country. Knowing his pet was bitter about being away from home, the owner suggested Litchfield try singing.

But not just any song.

“It was the theme song to ‘Zorro,'” Litchfield said. “So I went on YouTube. I pulled up the song. I learned the song. I went in and sang.”

The animal was not impressed.

Such is life at a boarding facility for cats.

Litchfield, 75, opened Just Cat Boarding in 2011, after a 30-year career as a therapist. She’d originally bought the big old house on Berry Avenue in Lisbon Falls to be close to the equestrian center where she boarded her horse. But while the location was perfect, the home had far more room than she needed.

“I thought, ‘Well, that’s crazy,'” she said.

She’d also thought it was crazy the way boarding facilities had taken care of her cat when she traveled over the years. Their hours were too short for pickup and drop-off. They either fed too much or not enough. Her cat always returned home tired and stressed.

“I wasn’t happy with what there was out there,” Litchfield said. “So I thought ‘Why don’t I not do everything that I used to not like when I boarded my own cat?’ That’s where this came from.”

Just Cat Boarding is one of the few feline-only boarding facilities in Maine.

For the past six years, Litchfield has cared for up to 10 cats at a time. Although she has a second cat room upstairs, her boarders most often stay in the enclosed living room downstairs, with its large windows, bird-feeder view and fish motif. The room is filled with assorted scratching posts and scattered toys.

“People tend to bring in toys, but because they’re here and everything’s new, they tend to like to play with my stuff,” Litchfield said. “They’re like kids.”

The cats stay in cages, with liberal time out to roam the room, sit at the window and play. Litchfield rotates the cats in and out of their cages so no two cats are out at the same time, eliminating the chance of a fight. Or something else.

“I had one who kept having these romances with the girls,” Litchfield said. “He’d go and sit by their kennels. It was so cute.”

Afternoon always seems to be nap time, regardless of who is there.

“You wouldn’t know I have a cat in the building from noon on,” Litchfield said. “Then it starts to get dark and they all come alive.”

Most cats stay for a few days or weeks. At least one lives there for three months each year while the family travels. Litchfield keeps to each cat’s personal schedule, feeding what and when their families want and providing medications.

Litchfield’s found her boys tend to be easy to deal with. Girls are more territorial.

“Boy cats seem to go, ‘Love me! Love me!'” Litchfield said. “The females seem to be like, ‘I’d like to see some ID.'”

Her own boy cat, Kie, never seems bothered by the feline interlopers.

“At first he was always kind of curious, but now he could care. He knows they’re not going to come near his space,” she said.

Litchfield regularly fields requests from her cats’ families — sing this song, feed this special food but only in the morning, make sure he has this blanket, text an update every day.

She never balks. She knows what it’s like to be on the other side.

“These are their babies,” Litchfield said.

Have an idea for Animal Tales? Call Lindsay Tice at 689-2854 or email her at ltice@sunjournal.com.

Toner is one of the cats that Jean E. Litchfield is caring for at Just Cat Boarding in Lisbon Falls. (Daryn Slover/Sun Journal)

Jean E. Litchfield converted her living room  into a room for cats. An outline of a cat adorns the living room door. (Daryn Slover/Sun Journal)

Jean E. Litchfield’s cat, Kie, checks out what the other cats are doing at Just Cat Boarding in Lisbon Falls. “He could care less,” Litchfield said when asked how Kie feels about having other cats around. (Daryn Slover/Sun Journal)